GTA V’s Take-Two Wants ‘Lying Cheat Maker’ to Pay Up

[Matrix]

Last month a New York federal court ordered the creator of two popular GTA V cheats to stop creating and distributing the code. However, that doesn't end the case in question. Take-Two wants tens of thousands of dollars to cover its costs and doesn't buy the cheater's claim that the $100,000 he earned is all gone.

There’s a bit of a trend emerging in which gaming companies use copyright legislation against cheaters.

Take-Two Interactive Software, the company behind ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (GTA V), is one of the players. The company has filed several lawsuits in the US targeting alleged cheaters.

In one case, a New York court recently issued a preliminary injunction ordering a man to stop working on and distributing the ‘Menyoo’ and ‘Absolute’ cheats.

The defendant, Georgia resident David Zipperer, didn’t deny his involvement and said he had already ceased working on the cheats. However, he had to find a lawyer as Take-Two was not letting the case go easily.

Following a referral from the EFF, Zipperer received “pro bono” help from attorney Joel Rothman. That didn’t last long. After a failed attempt to transfer the case to another district or otherwise resolve the case, the attorney is withdrawing from the case.

According to the attorney, Take-Two is increasing the costs and time for Zipperer’s defense, to “shake him free” of his pro bono counsel.

“I do not have the resources to go up against Kirkland & Ellis in scorched-earth discovery in a pro bono case. I cannot afford the time and money to fly around the country taking the depositions of Take-Two employees,” Rothman wrote to the court.

The attorney discussed a possible settlement with Take-Two, but the “tens of thousands” of dollars the company wants is not something his client can pay, he says.

“My client has no money. He swore to this Court that the money he earned from selling ‘cheat menus’ was used to support his family, that the money is gone, and that he has none left.

“He is an unemployed day laborer with a ninth-grade education who taught himself to write code. I have told this over and over to Take-Two’s lawyers, but they continue to demand a pound of flesh from Zipperer.”

Rothman, therefore, asked the Court to halt the discovery proceedings for thirty days so his client can find a new attorney, or prepare to represent himself.

Take-Two clearly sees things differently. A day after the attorney’s request was filed the company submitted a scathing reply, painting an opposing picture. According to the company, Zipperer has repeatedly misled the Court regarding his financial situation.

Through a subpoena, they learned that the defendant’s profits exceed $100,000 and that the most recent payment only dates a few months back. Some of the profits were spent on expensive electronic equipment and other personal purchases.

“Mr. Zipperer clearly has significantly more resources than he has repeatedly represented to this Court. We believe that these PayPal records reflect only a small fraction of the proceeds Mr. Zipperer has received from his illegal businesses,” the company writes.

Take-Two says that the case should not be delayed any further, also because there’s a chance that this will help the defendant to hide his assets.

“There are many litigants who need legal services and who legitimately do not have the means to pay for them. Mr. Zipperer is not one of them,” the company informs the Court.

“He is a man that has collected over a hundred thousand dollars by distributing an infringing work that harmed Take-Two and its customers who wanted to play Take-Two’s game without being ‘griefed’.”

After reviewing the submissions from both sides the Court sided with Take-Two (pdf), which means that the case won’t be delayed.

While Take-Two’s approach, in this case, may seem aggressive, it’s not always that way. Earlier this week it settled its case with Christopher Pei, who worked on the Infamous and Menyoo cheats. While Pei admits the infringing activities, both parties agreed to pay their own costs.

Meanwhile, Take-Two also filed a new lawsuit late last week. The company sued (pdf) Florida resident Jhonny Perez, accusing him of copyright infringement by creating and distributing the cheating tool “Elusive.”

 

Source

[Cruzan]

wow, back in the day game cheats would have never been considered for a law suit, world is going to hell fast(er) thanks to rich copy righters! I wish for them to be flooged til the whites of their bones show.

[halvgris]

it's so funny when micro payments suddenly backfires.

personally i just think most of the games just let ju live so they can profit from it.

 

i know my brother plays gta and earns every penny from it in game but some

other hairless teen can buy it with mums credit card.

 

for my own i come from the 8bit era and i wanted cheats to let me see more of

the game. today i can just watch a random player on youtube or twitch play it.

[zer0buRn]

8 hours ago, Cruzan said:

wow, back in the day game cheats would have never been considered for a law suit, world is going to hell fast(er) thanks to rich copy righters! I wish for them to be flooged til the whites of their bones show.

 

6 hours ago, halvgris said:

it's so funny when micro payments suddenly backfires.

personally i just think most of the games just let ju live so they can profit from it.

 

i know my brother plays gta and earns every penny from it in game but some

other hairless teen can buy it with mums credit card.

 

for my own i come from the 8bit era and i wanted cheats to let me see more of

the game. today i can just watch a random player on youtube or twitch play it.

 

 

Also back in our day, our gaming was not connected to the internet with hundreds of thousands of other players. Cheating in our day (GAME GENE anyone?) Just exploited the game to help the user either proceed past a part they were stuck on or like you (halvgris) said, to explore more of the world we otherwise would not have seen.

 

Today, gaming is connected and cheating not only affects the game world but the players that are involved in that world. So it's hurting the community as a whole...

 

Cruzan,  what you said toward the end there is just ignorance. If you had the capabilities and resources to build a world in which thousands of people can enjoy and then along comes some cheaters, and you notice your player base dropping because of the rampant cheating, would you not pursue legal action against the makers of such cheats that's causing your player base to drop or be extremely upset (for those that stick around) that nothing is being done about it? Think about it. 

[Sylence]

Take 2 company is full of shit. first they kicked out Leslie Benzies the mastermind behind GTAV, then they went after single player mods and now this.

instead of fixing their broken game where other players can get your IP in a second and find your location, they go after poor people like this guy. C*ckstar or take 2 both suck honestly. their anti cheat is so broken. there are a lot of better cheats made by Chinese people and these companies can't do shit about that.

8 hours ago, halvgris said:

it's so funny when micro payments suddenly backfires.

personally i just think most of the games just let ju live so they can profit from it.

 

i know my brother plays gta and earns every penny from it in game but some

other hairless teen can buy it with mums credit card.

 

for my own i come from the 8bit era and i wanted cheats to let me see more of

the game. today i can just watch a random player on youtube or twitch play it.

 

The game is full of glitches. just do the Heist finale of ACT II restart glitch and you can get 10 mil in less than 2 hours. no need to buy their shark cards and pay them ransom.

[Matrix]

1 hour ago, zer0buRn said:

Cruzan,  what you said toward the end there is just ignorance. If you had the capabilities and resources to build a world in which thousands of people can enjoy and then along comes some cheaters, and you notice your player base dropping because of the rampant cheating, would you not pursue legal action against the makers of such cheats that's causing your player base to drop or be extremely upset (for those that stick around) that nothing is being done about it? Think about it. 

 

11 hours ago, DonyMach1 said:

Last month a New York federal court ordered the creator of two popular GTA V cheats to stop creating and distributing the code. However, that doesn't end the case in question. Take-Two wants tens of thousands of dollars to cover its costs and doesn't buy the cheater's claim that the $100,000 he earned is all gone.

No need to say people ignorant your stretching the facts of this article some noob made a heap of cash out of this and now is crying poor mouth stick to the facts not what could have been or should of been  ignorance can be easily found look in a mirror